Our Team

Our team of finance, economics, data science, and technology experts is dedicated to providing cutting-edge global macro analysis. We're passionate about delivering the insights you need.

Leadership

Tiago Marques

CEO & Founder

With a strong background in Business Management and Computer Science, Tiago has held various CTO roles across startup sectors, from business intelligence to energy efficiency and cybersecurity.
His passion lies in deriving actionable insights from advanced graph analysis and machine learning, offering a strategic edge in navigating the startup world. Tiago’s experiences span continents, from the USA’s East Coast to London and Frankfurt, leading to his current role as CEO and co-founder of Zonthur.
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Tiago spent years in Cybersecurity using Network Analytics and Graph Theory to identify hidden relationships between threat actors (i.e. hackers) and detect patterns that were buried under layers of obfuscation. In cybersecurity, the challenge isn’t just identifying threats but doing so while attackers actively try to mislead detection systems by flooding networks with noise or exploiting weaknesses.

This taught him how to filter through massive amounts of data and isolate real threats.  In Finance the stakes are different, but the challenge is the same: cutting through the noise to find actionable insights. Financial markets, while more complex, are less adversarial by comparison - Instead of fighting obfuscation, the challenge is interpreting transparent data effectively. Tiago is now building systems that do just that, highlighting the hidden drivers of price movements and giving analysts a clear edge in decision-making.

It’s not about predictions, it’s about positioning yourself ahead of the curve, with concrete insights that can drive real results. That’s what excites him about this next phase: applying a proven approach to an entirely different set of challenges and seeing the tangible outcomes it delivers.He believes that Graph Theory, Complex Adaptive Systems and Agent-Based Modeling are underused methodologies in Finance.

These methods let us map and simulate the constantly shifting relationships that define markets, enhancing our ability to predict market shifts, track liquidity trends, and make smarter investment decisions. It’s a huge opportunity to push the boundaries of market analysis further and deliver real value for the industry.
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Ana Almeida

CSO & Founder

Ana's role as CSO at Zonthur stems from her deep background in investigative journalism, geopolitics, geo-intelligence, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which led her to explore how systems evolve and adapt.

Over years of research, she realized how powerful CAS could be in tackling complex challenges in financial markets.
Ana has built an unconventional career, spending over 20 years as an investigative journalist, focused on some of the most complex topics imaginable—International Politics and Geopolitics. This work experience gave her a deep understanding in a space where the connections between global events, nations, and policies was crucial, and a willingness to go further by modeling and understanding how systems evolve and adapt.

That drive led her into Geo-Intelligence and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) about 10 years ago, where she found a scientific methodology that truly captured her intellectual fascination—Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). It wasn’t just a scientific tool but also aligned with her philosophical interests, especially in Ontic Structural Realism, back from her Philosophy bachelor's.
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Over the last decade, she applied Complex Systems principles to a range of practical challenges, from Real Estate investment and development to urban pollution dynamics. Each project reaffirmed to her how underutilized CAS is in industries that deal with large-scale human behavior—markets, supply chains, social networks. What sets this approach apart is its ability to handle reflexivity, feedback loops, and emergent behavior—factors that traditional methods often oversimplify or ignore.

After years of research and seeing how adaptable Complex Systems are, Ana co-founded Zonthur to take these principles to financial markets. Together with Tiago, both have spent two years refining a platform that blends CAS modeling with graph theory to provide actionable insights for financial professionals
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Mark Rzepczynski

CIO

Mark has over 40 years of experience in investment management, holding leadership roles such as CEO, CIO, and Head of Fixed Income Research at firms like Fidelity, Prudential, and John W. Henry & Co. A derivatives markets expert, Mark has designed strategies across options, futures, and swaps, and is renowned for his work in financial econometrics, risk management, and macroeconomic analysis. At Zonthur, Mark applies his expertise to guide the development of causality-driven analytics, ensuring actionable, transparent insights for traders and portfolio managers seeking alpha in complex markets.

Cole Banister

Director of Business Development

Cole brings four years of experience as a director at a venture capital firm with $2.4 billion AUM, working closely with seed to late-stage companies and fund managers across North America and LATAM. He supports startups with capital raising, go-to-market strategy, and business development—helping them scale, enter new markets, and forge strategic partnerships. Prior to venture capital, Cole worked in institutional asset management, focusing on investor relations for three institutional clients with a combined ~$55 billion in assets.
Tiago spent years in Cybersecurity using Network Analytics and Graph Theory to identify hidden relationships between threat actors (i.e. hackers) and detect patterns that were buried under layers of obfuscation. In cybersecurity, the challenge isn’t just identifying threats but doing so while attackers actively try to mislead detection systems by flooding networks with noise or exploiting weaknesses.

This taught him how to filter through massive amounts of data and isolate real threats.  In Finance the stakes are different, but the challenge is the same: cutting through the noise to find actionable insights. Financial markets, while more complex, are less adversarial by comparison - Instead of fighting obfuscation, the challenge is interpreting transparent data effectively. Tiago is now building systems that do just that, highlighting the hidden drivers of price movements and giving analysts a clear edge in decision-making.

It’s not about predictions, it’s about positioning yourself ahead of the curve, with concrete insights that can drive real results. That’s what excites him about this next phase: applying a proven approach to an entirely different set of challenges and seeing the tangible outcomes it delivers.He believes that Graph Theory, Complex Adaptive Systems and Agent-Based Modeling are underused methodologies in Finance.

These methods let us map and simulate the constantly shifting relationships that define markets, enhancing our ability to predict market shifts, track liquidity trends, and make smarter investment decisions. It’s a huge opportunity to push the boundaries of market analysis further and deliver real value for the industry.

Tim Alvner

CFO

Whether working in startups or major consulting firms in East Asia, Tim has helped individuals, businesses and institutional banks build or buy tools that give them a clearer view of financial markets and their investments. His experience spans from implementing the largest systems in the world like BlackRock Aladdin for institutional asset managers, to designing pricing and hedging tools for hedge funds or building platforms to create tailored hedge fund investment strategies. Tim holds an MSc in Finance as well as a BSc in Physics.
Ana has built an unconventional career, spending over 20 years as an investigative journalist, focused on some of the most complex topics imaginable—International Politics and Geopolitics. This work experience gave her a deep understanding in a space where the connections between global events, nations, and policies was crucial, and a willingness to go further by modeling and understanding how systems evolve and adapt.

That drive led her into Geo-Intelligence and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) about 10 years ago, where she found a scientific methodology that truly captured her intellectual fascination—Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). It wasn’t just a scientific tool but also aligned with her philosophical interests, especially in Ontic Structural Realism, back from her Philosophy bachelor's.
‍
Over the last decade, she applied Complex Systems principles to a range of practical challenges, from Real Estate investment and development to urban pollution dynamics. Each project reaffirmed to her how underutilized CAS is in industries that deal with large-scale human behavior—markets, supply chains, social networks. What sets this approach apart is its ability to handle reflexivity, feedback loops, and emergent behavior—factors that traditional methods often oversimplify or ignore.

After years of research and seeing how adaptable Complex Systems are, Ana co-founded Zonthur to take these principles to financial markets. Together with Tiago, both have spent two years refining a platform that blends CAS modeling with graph theory to provide actionable insights for financial professionals
Read less

Vasco Almeida

Lead Software Engineer

A seasoned software developer with 10 years of experience, Vasco specializes in programming sophisticated frontend web applications that adhere to Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) and Clean Architecture principles. With extensive design, UI/UX expertise, and fluency in computer graphics rendering, Vasco plays a pivotal role in shaping Zonthur's user interface and product functionality, ensuring seamless client experiences.

Catarina Castelo-Branco

Marketing Manager

Catarina is a dynamic Marketing Manager certified by the American Marketing Association and the Digital Marketing Institute. Her passion for financial markets and trading fuels Zonthur’s outreach and engagement efforts, connecting our platform with its target audience. She plans to pursue the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation to further her expertise.
Tiago spent years in Cybersecurity using Network Analytics and Graph Theory to identify hidden relationships between threat actors (i.e. hackers) and detect patterns that were buried under layers of obfuscation. In cybersecurity, the challenge isn’t just identifying threats but doing so while attackers actively try to mislead detection systems by flooding networks with noise or exploiting weaknesses.

This taught him how to filter through massive amounts of data and isolate real threats.  In Finance the stakes are different, but the challenge is the same: cutting through the noise to find actionable insights. Financial markets, while more complex, are less adversarial by comparison - Instead of fighting obfuscation, the challenge is interpreting transparent data effectively. Tiago is now building systems that do just that, highlighting the hidden drivers of price movements and giving analysts a clear edge in decision-making.

It’s not about predictions, it’s about positioning yourself ahead of the curve, with concrete insights that can drive real results. That’s what excites him about this next phase: applying a proven approach to an entirely different set of challenges and seeing the tangible outcomes it delivers.He believes that Graph Theory, Complex Adaptive Systems and Agent-Based Modeling are underused methodologies in Finance.

These methods let us map and simulate the constantly shifting relationships that define markets, enhancing our ability to predict market shifts, track liquidity trends, and make smarter investment decisions. It’s a huge opportunity to push the boundaries of market analysis further and deliver real value for the industry.